PocketBook

Performance Indicators

2013

In five years of existence the PocketBook company sold two million devices - e-books and tablets. This fact was recorded at the end of 2013. The most popular models of e-books, according to partners, at the end of year became PocketBook Basic New, PocketBook Touch and PocketBook 624.

2011

Since the moment of foundation of the company in 2007 till September, 2011 PocketBook in total produced over 500 thousand eReaders.

2010

According to SmartMarketing, in 2010 in Russia 539 thousand pieces of devices for reading e-books were sold that is 285% more than sales volumes in 2009 of PocketBook at the end of year it was the leading player from shares in 40.35%. On the second place, according to analysts, the LBook brand from shares of 6.37% which Onyx, Sony and Explay with shares of 5.56%, 5.38% and 5.02% respectively follow. In addition to them ten in decreasing order also included Digma, Wexler, Iriver, Onext and Qumo.

According to SmartMarketing, in 2009 the share of PocketBook in the market of Russia made 43% that was the best result.

Production base

In September, 2011 it became known that the producer of readers of PocketBook rents at the Taiwan plant Foxconn three-storyed factory which will allow it to produce up to 8 thousand devices a day.

Earlier the producer rented several territorially separate production lines of smaller power at Foxconn. Approximately since October, 2011 production of all the devices of PocketBook will perform on this uniform platform. With new production capacities the company can potentially produce over 2 million devices a year.

• In PocketBook there is own customer service which quickly comes to the rescue of users, helps to resolve many questions on operation of devices and also is engaged in repair of all levels of complexity: from reinstallation of the software before repair of the motherboard.
• The customer service is one of the most operational. The average time of reply to the request by e-mail is 1-3 working days, and it directly depends on days off and holidays. Most often employees react to requests of users within 1 working day from the moment of the address. The term of repair of devices depends on complexity of fault: error correction or reinstallation of the software takes from 10 to 30 minutes, and the average time of repair is 5-7 working days.
• Most often appeal to service to eliminate failures in the software. On the second place – mechanical damages during operation.
• The percent of factory breakdowns is extremely low and makes only 0.8%. The customer service has a special service and engineering department which keeps statistics of faults and transfers information to developers of readers. Thus the quality of PocketBook constantly increases.
• Structures of PocketBook serve very long. Still come to service model 2008-2009 of years of release, and the greatest number of addresses on such models is connected with the exhausted accumulators which spent the resource. It is possible to note that the average term of service of devices of PocketBook makes 6 years.

History

2010

December, 2010: The Russian company "Book on Demand" together with the FTM literary agency took legal action with the claim to PocketBook company (Ukraine), accusing her of gross violation of copyright. According to the claim, in multimedia PocketBook tablets were illegally, without the consent of owners, electronic texts of 79 works, the rights to which belong to the FTM agency and Book on Demand, are downloaded. The PocketBook company refused settlement of the matter by negotiations. December 27, 2010. The Tushino district court of Moscow, having considered the produced evidence, decided to arrest accounts of the Vellifer and Eldorado companies representing the interests of PocketBook. According to claimants the PocketBook company during 2010 imported into the Russian Federation for implementation through the Russian retail chain stores not less than 100 thousand multimedia PocketBook tablets with counterfeit editions. Proceeding from it the Book on Demand company and the FTM literary agency stated the claim in Arbitration court of Moscow for the total amount of 1 billion rubles of compensation (in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation the penalty for each fact of copyright violation can be from 10 thousand to 5 million rubles). Claimants pay attention that not only Eldorado, but also other networks which traded in PocketBook tablets with counterfeit editions can be codefendants in this claim. The Book on Demand company and the FTM literary agency state that they intend and to protect consistently from now on the rights of authors from illegal use of their works, and call all owners of the exclusive rights to intellectual property and also all distributors of devices for reading e-books actively to fight against piracy which gained in recent years broad development in the field of multimedia business.

2011

• In August, 2011. The Ukrainian producer of PocketBook e-books opened three brand stores where readers and also various them accessories are on sale in Russia. Two shops are located in Moscow – in MTK "Evropark" and Vegas shopping Mall, and one more – in Reutov situated near Moscow. Until the end of 2011 the company is going to start two more shops – one in Shopping Center MEGA White Giving in Moscow, and another in St. Petersburg.

According to the head of the Russian retail network PocketBook Evgeny Pilipenko, in the long term the company expects to open own shops in all Russian million-plus cities. In 2012 one of the most priority cities for opening of the shop the company sees Sochi. Pilipenko explains that, first, it would be relevant in the run-up to the Olympic Games, and secondly, the shopping center, largest in the city, opens there. Also priority cities are Yekaterinburg and Samara, he says.

"We accurately understand that corporate retail is rather step to the consumer, but not the commercial project. Our purpose in this case – not fast profit earning, but increase in level of knowledge by consumers of opportunities of electronic readers and advantages of reading using such devices", - the head of the Russian representative office of PocketBook Evgeny Militsa says.

According to him, "for lack of corporate retail any brand looks actually "virtual": somewhere there are its central office and the service centers, however the average consumer practically does not contact to them".

In addition to Russia PocketBook has brand stores only in Ukraine so far: there four sales points work. In August, 2011 it is going to expand network to six shops, report in the company.

In spite of the fact that in the company the retail project is called, rather marketing, than commercial, in the Russian representative office expect quite high level of sales for this segment. According to Pilipenko, the company hopes to implement about 100 devices a month in each shop.

For comparison – in June from all Euroset "crop" in 1.7 thousand readers of PocketBook was reaped, the representative of the Russian office of the company Rostislav Guborzhevsky provided data. In M.Video, according to him, 2.5 thousand devices, in "The white wind Tsifrovom" - 800, and in Eldorado - 750 were sold for the same period.

The head of Euroset Alexander Malis notes that similar brand stores have usually low profitability, on the verge of payback. "Usually they are created as a show-window for involvement of larger retail networks, - he says. – Brand stores of the companies trading in extremely popular products – for example Apple with its iPad can become an exception of this rule".

In a retail outlet it is possible to earn from one reader on average 500-1000 rub, Malis says. Therefore even at achievement of sales volume in 100 pieces from one shop revenue will be comparable or costs of lease of space in shopping center are lower, he notes.

• In September, 2011 it became known that the producer of readers of PocketBook got at the Taiwan plant Foxconn own three-storyed factory which will allow it to produce up to 8 thousand devices a day, told CNews in the company.

Earlier the producer rented several territorially separate production lines of smaller power at Foxconn, Evgeny Militsa, the director of representative office of PocketBook in Russia explained. According to him, approximately since October, 2011 the company will perform production of all the devices on this uniform platform.

Since the moment of foundation of the company in 2007 PocketBook in total produced over 500 thousand eReaders, her representatives tell. With new production capacities the company can potentially produce over 2 million devices a year.

Need of expansion of production Militsa explains with growth in sales of products of PocketBook both on Russian, and on world the markets.

Not only readers will be made on new capacities of Foxconn. PocketBook told CNews that the company heads for diversification of products and entry into the market of tablets. The first step in this direction is already taken – in February, 2011 the company released the tablet reader with the 7-inch TFT screen combining possibilities of both devices – PocketBook IQ 701.

PocketBook A10 will become the new device of this kind, Evgeny Militsa tells. In comparison with the predecessor he has the big size of the screen – 10 inches, more powerful processor – 1 GHz against 800 MHz, the amount of memory, newer version of OS Android – 2.3.4. The reader is equipped with the front 2-megapixel camera, modules Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Retail price of the device will be about 12 thousand rubles.

The director of the Russian representative office claims that now the tablet reader is the share of the first about 20% of total sales of devices of PocketBook. It is on sale practically in all large retail networks of electronics. Said to rather new model of the tablet reader Milits that most of permanent partners of the company showed interest in this product and planned the orders and marketing activity.

The head of Euroset Alexander Malis notes that the market of tablet readers grows now, and therefore in this direction it is possible to call diversification of the producer relevant, however he considers the price in 12 thousand rubles for such device "limit".

Militsa from PocketBook told CNews that the market of "traditional" tablets is also interesting to the company, and it has plans for release of such devices. Terms of the beginning of production and their output to the market are not specified yet.